A TURKISH Cypriot banker involved in a financial scandal crippling northern Cyprus has fled to the government-controlled areas, saying his life was in danger.
Turkish Cypriot Elmas Guzelyurtlu crossed south through the mixed buffer zone village of Pyla at around 10.30 on Monday night, police said yesterday. Guzelyurtlu turned up at Oroklini police station, down the road from Pyla, shortly afterwards.
"He said his life was in danger and he wanted to stay here," police spokesman Stelios Neophytou said.
Neophytou said government authorities were "obliged" to give sanctuary to the fugitive. The police spokesman said the Interior Ministry would decide Guzelyurtu’s future. He would not comment on where the Turkish Cypriot was being kept, citing security reasons.
The 48-year-old Turkish Cypriot was a shareholder and director in Everest Bank, the first of six that collapsed in the occupied areas earlier this year, freezing the accounts of thousands of depositors.
The banking scandal caused unprecedented unrest in the north this summer, with hundreds of depositors taking to the streets to demand their money back.
The Turkish Cypriot ‘Attorney-general’ is investigating Guzelyurtlu and shareholders of the other five banks. The probe is expected to be wrapped up this month, Reuters reported yesterday.
According to reports in yesterday’s Turkish Cypriot press, Guzelyurtlu, who comes from Limassol, was also the owner of a casino in the occupied areas.
Kibris reported that he had been banned from leaving the north by the occupation regime and had of late repeatedly pleaded to be allowed to travel to London to find money to save his sunken bank.
The Turkish Cypriot papers said Guzelyurtu’s wife, left behind in the north, was refusing to make any comment on her husband’s flight.
One of the depositors caught out by the collapse of the six banks told Reuters that Guzelyurtu’s escape was a case of the guilty fleeing the scene of a crime.
"We, the bank victims, are getting criminal charges filed against us for storming parliament in protest and the perpetrators of the bank crisis are getting away," he said.
The owner of another bank under investigation said Guzelyurtu’s flight was likely to make other bankers look even worse in the eyes of the public.
"This is very bad for all of us. By running away he is admitting his crime in the eyes of the people and it is going to make things very difficult in our cases," the banker, who wished to remain anonymous, said.
